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Geneva Conference of 1954
* wikisource:Geneva Conference * wikisource:The Final Declaration of The Geneva Conference: On Restoring Peace in Indochina, July 21, 1954 Wikipedia's version of this article is chronically and therefore hopelessly supportive of a US-centric consensus and bears no relationship to any rational interpretation of international law. There are blatant falsehoods, most notably the map showing the ceasefire line as a border, South Vietnam as a country, that declares SVN as a consequence of the Conference when in fact it was expressly forbidden by Article 6, and implicitly by Article 5. The US broke Article 4 when first introducing "advisor" troops into the country. It broke 5 and 6 in the same way as Wikipedia does, more or less. It broke Article 3 with its help in founding and support for the Dao and Diem and following regimes. 7 follows from 3. 8 was severely challenged by the "Virgin Mary has fled to the South" campaign by the CIA. In its illegal resistance to the occupation of the country by the only forces that supported elections, it violated Article 9 in the most profound ways possible. 10 and 11 were provisions targeting the French; 1 and 2 were summary articles, and 12 and 13 were violated by the war. Geneva Conference}} The Geneva Conference (April 26 – July 20, 1954 ) was a conference which took place in Wikipedia:Geneva, Wikipedia:Switzerland, whose ostensible purpose was to attempt to find a way to settle outstanding issues on the Wikipedia:Korean peninsula, to unify Wikipedia:Vietnam, and discuss the possibility of restoring peace in Wikipedia:Indochina. The Conference is the beginning of the lie told so repeatedly that history rarely records anything else: that it marked the beginning of the southern "State of Vietnam". Nothing could be further from the truth; the resulting Accord specifically stated that the ceasefire line between the two forces was "in no way to constitute a political boundary".The United States in Vietnam: An analysis in depth of the history of America's involvement in Vietnam by George McTurnan Kahin and John W. Lewis Delta Books, 1967. The Conference was well aware of the ramifications of political partition, and went out of their way to prohibit it. Nonetheless, all western powers have to this day gone along with the US acting as though a partition had taken place, and with all the other US violations of the international treaty provisions as well. The Wikipedia:Soviet Union, the Wikipedia:United States, Wikipedia:France, the Wikipedia:United Kingdom, and the People’s Republic of China were participants throughout the whole conference while different countries concerned with the two questions were also represented during the discussion of their respective questions, which included the countries that sent troops through the Wikipedia:United Nations to the Wikipedia:Korean War and the various countries that ended the Wikipedia:First Indochina War between France and the Việt Minh. Ngo Diem took power at the time of or after the conference, and therefore was not a party to its discussion, but as even the most basic legal contracts accrue to future parties, he was subject to its mandates. The part of the conference on the Korean question ended without adopting any declarations or proposals. On Indochina, the conference produced a set of documents known as the Geneva Accords. These agreements temporarily separated Vietnam into two ceasefire zones, a northern zone into which the Việt Minh were to retreat, and a southern zone into which the French forces, then headed by former emperor Wikipedia:Bảo Đại were to retreat. A Conference Final Declaration, issued by the British chairman of the conference, provided that a general election be held by July 1956 to create a unified Vietnamese state. Although presented as a consensus view, this document was not accepted by the delegates of either South Vietnam or the United States. In addition, three separate ceasefire accords, covering Wikipedia:Cambodia, Wikipedia:Laos, and Vietnam, were signed at the conference. Background Korea The Wikipedia:armistice signed at end of the Korean War required a political conference within three months—a timeline which was not met—“to settle through negotiation the questions of the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Korea, the peaceful settlement of the Korean question, etc.” Indochina thumb|250px|The Geneva Conference. After the defeat of the Wikipedia:Japanese Empire in 1945, the Wikipedia:Provisional Government of the French Republic restored colonial rule in Wikipedia:French Indochina. Nationalist and communist movements in Vietnam led to the Wikipedia:First Indochina War in 1946. This Wikipedia:colonial war between the Wikipedia:French Union's Expeditionary Corps and Hồ Chí Minh's Wikipedia:Việt Minh guerrillas turned into a Wikipedia:Cold War crisis in January 1950.[http://www.amazon.com/dp/0813124409/ Replacing France: The Origins of American Intervention in Vietnam], Kathryn C. Statler, Unirvesity Press of Kentucky, July 2007 The communist Việt Minh received support from the newly proclaimed Wikipedia:People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union, while France and the newly created Wikipedia:Vietnamese National Army received support from the United States. The Battle of Điện Biên Phủ started on March 13, 1954 and continued during the conference. Its issue became a strategic turnover as both sides wanted to emerge as the victor and forge a favorable position for the planned negotiations about “the Indochinese problem”. After fighting for 55 days, the besieged French garrison was overrun and all French central positions were captured by the Việt Minh. This war was significant in that it starkly demonstrated the reality that a Western colonial power could be defeated by an indigenous revolutionary force; the French previously pacified a similar uprising in the Wikipedia:Madagascar colony in March, 1947. A few months after the fall of Điện Biên Phủ, troops were deployed in Algeria and a second guerrilla-warfare-based war of independence started in November 1954. Growing distrust and defiance among the army's Chief of Staff toward the Wikipedia:Fourth French Republic after the contested defeat of the First Indochina War led to two military coups d'état in March 1958 and April 1961. Most of the rebel generals were Indochina veterans, including their leader, Wikipedia:Raoul Salan. On the Korean question The South Korean representative proposed that the South Korean government was the only legal government in Korea, that UN-supervised elections should be held in the North, that Chinese forces should withdraw, and that UN forces—a belligerent party to the war—should remain as a police force. The North Korean representative suggested that elections be held throughout all of Korea, that all foreign forces leave beforehand, that the elections be run by an all-Korean Commission that is made up of equal parts from North and South Korea, and to generally increase relations economically and culturally between the North and the South. The Chinese delegation proposed an amendment to have a group of “neutral nations” supervise the elections, which the North accepted. The U.S. supported the South Korean position and saying that the USSR wanted to turn North Korea into a puppet state. Most allies remained silent and at least one, Britain, thought that the U.S.-South Korean proposal would be deemed unreasonable. The South Korean representative then made a new proposal where there would be all-Korea elections but that they would be held according to South Korean constitutional procedures and still under UN-supervision. On June 15, the last day of the conference on the Korean question, the USSR and China both submitted declarations in support of a unified, democratic, independent Korea, and that negotiations to that end should resume at an appropriate time. The Belgian and British delegations said that while they were not going to accept “the Soviet and Chinese proposals, that did not mean a rejection of the ideas they contained.” In the end, however, no declaration was adopted. The Geneva Accords Northern and southern zones were drawn into which opposing troops were to withdraw, to facilitate the cessation of hostilities between the Vietnamese forces and those that had supported the French. Viet Minh units, having advanced to the far south while fighting the French, retreated from these positions, in accordance with the Agreement, to north of the ceasefire line, awaiting unification on the basis of internationally supervised free Wikipedia:elections to be held in July 1956.(Article 3) (N. Tarling, The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia, Volume Two Part Two: From World War II to the present, Cambridge University Press, p45) Most of the French Union forces evacuated Vietnam, although much of the regional governmental infrastructure in the South was the same as it had been under the French administration. An Wikipedia:International Control Commission was set up to oversee the implementation of the Geneva Accords, but it was essentially powerless to ensure compliance. It was to consist of India, Canada, and Poland. The agreement was among Wikipedia:Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Wikipedia:France, Wikipedia:Laos, the Wikipedia:People's Republic of China, the Wikipedia:Soviet Union, and the Wikipedia:United Kingdom. The Wikipedia:State of Vietnam rejected the agreement. The United States took note and acknowledged that the agreement existed, but refused to sign the agreement, to avoid being legally bound to it. Document The Final Declaration of The Geneva Conference: On Restoring Peace in Indochina, July 21, 1954 Following the drafting of the Geneva Conference agreements on cessation of hostilities in Viet Nam, the conference also drafted a statement clarifying the agreements. Many points implied but not specified in the agreements document were included in this statement, (e.g, point 6, "the military demarcation line should not in any way be interpreted as constituting a political or territorial boundary") Source: The Department of State Bulletin, XXXI, No. 788 (August 2, 1954), p. 164. }} The Final Declaration of The Geneva Conference: On Restoring Peace in Indochina, July 21, 1954 :Final declaration, dated July 21, 1954, of the Geneva Conference on the problem of restoring peace in Indochina, in which the representatives of Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam, France, Laos, the People's Republic of China, the State of Viet-Nam, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom and the United States of America took part. Article 1 :1. The Conference takes note of the agreements ending hostilities in Cambodia, Laos, and Viet-Nam and organizing international control and the supervision of the execution of the provisions of these agreements. Article 2 :2. The Conference expresses satisfaction at the ending of hostilities in Cambodia, Laos, and Viet-Nam. The Conference expresses its conviction that the execution of the provisions set out in the present declaration and in the agreements on the cessation of hostilities will permit Cambodia, Laos, and Viet-Nam henceforth to play their part, in full independence and sovereignty, in the peaceful community of nations. Article 3 :3. The Conference takes note of the declarations made by the Governments of Cambodia and of Laos of their intention to adopt measures permitting all citizens to take their place in the national community, in particular by participating in the next general elections, which, in conformity with the constitution of each of these countries, shall take place in the course of the year 1955, by secret ballot and in conditions of respect for fundamental freedoms. Article 4 :4. The Conference takes note of the clauses in the agreement on the cessation of hostilities in Viet-Nam prohibiting the introduction into Viet Nam of foreign troops and military personnel as well as of all kinds of arms and munitions. The Conference also takes note of the declarations made by the Governments of Cambodia and Laos of their resolution not to request foreign aid, whether in war material, in personnel, or in instructors except for the purpose of effective defense of their territory and, in the case of Laos, to the extent defined by the agreements on the cessation of hostilities in Laos. Article 5 :5. The Conference takes note of the clauses in the agreement on the cessation of hostilities in Viet-Nam to the effect that no military base at the disposition of a foreign state may be established in the regrouping zones of the two parties, the latter having the obligation to see that the zones allotted to them shall not constitute part of any military alliance and shall not be utilized for the resumption of hostilities or in the service of an aggressive policy. The Conference also takes note of the declarations of the Governments of Cambodia and Laos to the effect that they will not join in any agreement with other states if this agreement includes the obligation to participate in a military alliance not in conformity with the principles of the charter of the United Nations or, in the case of Laos, with the principles of the agreement on the cessation of hostilities in Laos or, so long as their security is not threatened, the obligation to establish bases on Cambodian or Laotian territory for the military forces of foreign powers. Article 6 :6. The Conference recognizes that the essential purpose of the agreement relating to Viet-Nam is to settle military questions with a view to ending hostilities and that the military demarcation line should not in any way be interpreted as constituting a political or territorial boundary. The Conference expresses its conviction that the execution of the provisions set out in the present declaration and in the agreement on the cessation of hostilities creates the necessary basis for the achievement in the near future of a political settlement in Viet-Nam. Article 7 :7. The Conference declares that, so far as Viet-Nam is concerned, the settlement of political problems, effected on the basis of respect for the principles of independence, unity, and territorial integrity, shall permit the Vietnamese people to enjoy the fundamental freedoms, guaranteed by democratic institutions established as a result of free general elections by secret ballot. :In order to insure that sufficient progress in the restoration of peace has been made, and that all the necessary conditions obtain for free expression of the national will, general elections shall be held in July 1956, under the supervision of an international commission composed of representatives of the member states of the International Supervisory Commission referred to in the agreement on the cessation of hostilities. Consultations will be held on this subject between the competent representative authorities of the two zones from April 20, 1955, onwards. Article 8 :8. The provisions of the agreements on the cessation of hostilities intended to insure the protection of individuals and of property must be most strictly applied and must, in particular, allow every one in Viet-Nam to decide freely in which zone he wishes to live. Article 9 :9. The competent representative authorities of the northern and southern zones of Viet-Nam, as well as the authorities of Laos and Cambodia, must not permit any individual or collective reprisals against persons who have collaborated in any way with one of the parties during the war, or against members of such persons' families. Article 10 :10. The Conference takes note of the declaration of the French Government to the effect that it is ready to withdraw its troops from the territory of Cambodia, Laos, and Viet-Nam, at the request of the governments concerned and within a period which shall be fixed by agreement between the parties except in the cases where, by agreement between the two parties, a certain number of French troops shall remain at specified points and for a specified time. Article 11 :11. The Conference takes note of the declaration of the French Government to the effect that for the settlement of all the problems connected with the reestablishment and consolidation of peace in Cambodia, Laos, and Viet-Nam, the French Government will proceed from the principle of respect for the independence and sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of Cambodia, Laos, and Viet-Nam. Article 12 :12. In their relations with Cambodia, Laos, and Viet-Nam, each member of the Geneva Conference undertakes to respect the sovereignty, the independence, the unity, and the territorial integrity of the above-mentioned states, and to refrain from any interference in their internal affairs. Article 13 :13. The members of the Conference agree to consult one another on any question which may be referred to them by the International Supervisory Commission, in order to study such measures as may prove necessary to insure that the agreements on the cessation of hostilities in Cambodia, Laos, and Viet-Nam are respected. Source: The Department of State Bulletin, XXXI, No. 788 (August 2, 1954), p. 164. Links Online sources *Modern History Sourcebook * *McGraw Hill full text Geneva Agreements and response The Geneva Agreements, which were issued on July 21, 1954, carefully worded the division of northern and southern Vietnam as a "provisional military demarcation line", "on either side of which the forces of the two parties shall be regrouped after their withdrawal". To specifically put aside any notion that it was a partition, they further stated, in the Final Declaration, Article 6: "The Conference recognizes that the essential purpose of the agreement relating to Vietnam is to settle military questions with a view to ending hostilities and that the military demarcation line is provisional and should not in any way be interpreted as constituting a political or territorial boundary" Then U.S. Under-Secretary of State Wikipedia:Walter Bedell Smith said, "In connection with the statement in the Declaration concerning free elections in Vietnam, my government wishes to make clear its position which it has expressed in a Declaration made in Washington on June 29, 1954, as follows: 'In the case of nations now divided against their will, we shall continue to seek unity through free elections, supervised by the Wikipedia:United Nations to ensure they are conducted fairly.'" However, this "American Plan" was rejected by the North Vietnamese and by the Soviet delegation.The Pentagon Papers (1971), Beacon Press, vol. 3, p. 140. Post declaration events thumb|250px|Anticommunist Vietnamese refugees moving from a French [[Wikipedia:List of United States Navy LSMs|LSM landing ship to the USS Montague during Wikipedia:Operation Passage to Freedom in August 1954.]] For Communist forces, which were instrumental in the defeat of the French, the ideology of communism and nationalism were linked. Many communist sympathisers viewed the South Vietnamese as a French colonial and later an American puppet regime. On the other hand, as many others viewed the North Vietnamese as a puppet of Communist International. After the cessation of hostilities, a large migration took place. 1,000,000 North Vietnamese, many were Catholics, intellectuals, business people, land owners, anti-communist democrats, and members of the middle-class moved south of the Accords-mandated ceasefire line during Wikipedia:Operation Passage to Freedom. The CIA attempted to further influence Catholic Vietnamese with slogans such as 'the Virgin Mary is moving South'. At the same time, 52,000 people from the South went North, mostly Viet Minh members and their families. The U.S. replaced the French as a political backup for Wikipedia:Ngo Dinh Diem, then Prime Minister of the Wikipedia:State of Vietnam and he asserted his power in the South. Diem refused to hold the national elections, citing that the South did not sign and were not bound to the Geneva Accords and that it was impossible to hold free elections in the communist North, and went about attempting to crush communist opposition.Keylor, William. "The 20th Century World and Beyond: An International History Since 1900," p.371, Wikipedia:Oxford University Press: 2011. North Vietnam established military operations in the South in violation of the Geneva Accords, by providing military supplies and equipment, weaponry, and military personnel and leadership to the Viet Cong in the South. Guerrilla activity in the South escalated, while U.S. military advisers continued to support the Wikipedia:Army of the Republic of Vietnam, which was created as a replacement for the Wikipedia:Vietnamese National Army. The failure of reunification led to the creation of the National Liberation Front (better known as the Wikipedia:Vietcong) by Wikipedia:Ho Chi Minh's government. They were closely aided by the Wikipedia:Vietnam People's Army (VPA) of the North, also known as the Wikipedia:North Vietnamese Army. The result was the Second Indochinese War, more commonly known as the Wikipedia:Vietnam War. Sino-British relations The British and Communist Chinese delegations reached agreement on the sidelines of the Conference to upgrade their diplomatic relations. Reception John Lewis Gaddis, a historian, said that the 1954 accords "were so hastily drafted and ambiguously worded that, from the standpoint of international law, it makes little sense to speak of violations from either side."Fadiman, Anne. Wikipedia:The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 1997. 126. Wikipedia:Template:French Indochina Geneva Agreements thumb|right|The US sent a representative to the conferences, but did not sign the document The Wikipedia:Geneva Agreements of 1954 (also, "Geneva Accords") arranged a settlement which brought about an end to the Wikipedia:First Indochina War. The agreement was reached at the end of the Geneva Conference. A ceasefire was signed and France agreed to withdraw its troops from the region. French Indochina was split into three countries: Wikipedia:Laos, Wikipedia:Cambodia, and Wikipedia:Vietnam. Vietnam was to be temporarily divided along the 17th Parallel until elections could be held to unite the country. These elections were never held; following repeated refusals to hold nationwide elections by Wikipedia:Ngo Dinh Diem and his declaration of leadership of a new state, Wikipedia:South Vietnam, the Wikipedia:Vietminh established a communist state in the North led by Wikipedia:Ho Chi Minh. The US gave Diem considerable support in the form of financial aid; due to the corruption evident in his regime, and the question of the depth of support for him in Vietnam, there was a certain amount of reluctance in doing so. Wikipedia:Walter Bedell Smith, US representative at the Conference, read a statement on July 21, 1954, in which the US' willingness to abide by the terms of the agreements was implied, and it promised to "refrain from the threat or use of force to disturb" them. Specifically, the statement seemed to promise not only US acquiescence to the mandated elections, but aid in executing them. Wikipedia:Black propaganda operations by the Wikipedia:CIA commenced within ten days of Smith's announcement; the leaflets dropped on Wikipedia:Hanoi were so convincing, that Vietminh denouncements of them were believed by even the Communist party faithful to be French trickery. Registration by Vietnamese wanting to go south to French territory increased threefold, and Vietminh currency halved in value, within days of the leaflet drop. Chapter: Report of US Central Intelligence Agency Covert Operations Team in Vietnam 1955. Original: the Wikipedia:Pentagon Papers Aspects of the Conference that have been the subject of controversy include whether it constituted a partition of Viet Nam, the transfer of responsibility for abiding by the agreement from the French representative for Viet Nam, Wikipedia:Bảo Đại, to his largely self-appointed (and US-backed) successor Wikipedia:Ngo Dinh Diem, and similarly, the extent of US responsibility for abiding by an agreement it did not sign. Sources for the full text *East Tennessee State University website: Full text of the AgreementsAgreement on the Cessation of Hostilities in Viet-Nam, July 20, 1954 Between the French and the Viet Minh East Tennessee State University Department of History *Full text of the Geneva Agreement and Final Declaration, The United States in Vietnam: An analysis in depth of the history of America's involvement in Vietnam, Appendix 2.The United States in Vietnam: An analysis in depth of the history of America's involvement in Vietnam by George McTurnan Kahin and John W. Lewis, Delta Books, 1967 *Full text of the Agreements Mt. Holyoke College Professor of International Politics website: obtained from source: U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, 90th Congress, 1st Session, Background Information Relating to Southeast Asia and Vietnam (3d Revised Edition) (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, July 1967), pp. 50–62Major Provisions of the 1954 Geneva Accords from The Pentagon Papers, Gravel Edition, Vol 1 Chapter 5 *Full text of the Agreement and Final Declaration: Vietnam documents: American and Vietnamese views of the war, by Wikipedia:George N. Katsiaficas *Modern History Sourcebook, Final Declaration * *McGraw Hill full text of the Final Declaration External links * Dr. [[Martin Luther King] Jr.'s 1967 speech "The Casualties of the War in Vietnam"] * *Indochina – History links for French involvement in Indochina, casahistoria.net *Vietnam – History links for US involvement in Indochina, casahistoria.net *Bibliography: Dien Bien Phu and the Geneva Conference *[http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/FRUS/FRUS-idx?id=FRUS.FRUS195254v16 Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952-1954, volume XVI, The Geneva Conference]. Available through the [http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/FRUS/FRUS-idx?type=browse&scope=FRUS.FRUS1 Foreign Relations of the United States online collection] at the University of Wisconsin. Notes Category:Viet Nam War Category:International law Category:Violations of international law Category:1954 in France Category:1954 in Vietnam Category:CIA activities in Asia and the Pacific Category:First Indochina War Category:Foreign relations of the Soviet Union Category:History of Viet Nam Category:French Indochina Category:Vietnamese independence movement Category:Treaties concluded in 1954 Category:Treaties of the French Fourth Republic Category:Peace treaties of Vietnam Category:French Fourth Republic Category:Diplomatic conferences in Switzerland Category:20th-century diplomatic conferences Category:1954 in international relations Category:1954 in Switzerland Category:Korea Category:Korean War Category:Counterculture of the 1960s Category:Viet Nam Category:History of Vietnam